Strategic Services
Replenishment strategy
At all stages of a supply chain there will be some trade-off of frequency of replenishment versus stock holding. The right strategy for any company will depend a number of factors including its service offering, manufacturing constraints, leads times and stock value.
The Supply Chain Design Company aims to optimise supply chains rather than simply eliminate stock; the tools we use are highly effective in providing cost-effective operations at the required levels of service.
Link to Case Study 6 – Direct ‘Factory to Customer
Manufacturing Cycles
Production frequency is one example of replenishment evaluation.
The Supply Chain Design Company’s identifies the real costs of changeovers, storage and stock holding in order to enable cost-effective decisions to be made on run-lengths.
Link to Case Study 2 – Production Plant & Planning Strategy
Order fulfilment processes
The complete order cycle involves various timescales of planning as well as execution processes.
The Supply Chain Design Company facilitates the design of an overall set of well-integrated business processes and systems that maps on to the physical supply chain capability. We can review your existing processes and systems against your business requirements and suggest improvements where necessary.
Link to Case Study 5 – Order Fulfilment Cycle
Stock deployment strategy
Part of the process of optimising stock is to hold stock in the right locations - and this is likely to be as a result of a combination of geographic and supply-flow factors. It is not always the most effective solution for suppliers to keep material stocks until the last moment.
At The Supply Chain Design Company we establish solutions to stock-holding questions as an integral part of the supply chain design process.
Link to Case Study 3 – Manufacturing Distribution Strategy
Link to Case Study 9 – Utilising Supplier Capability
Network Design
The number, size and location of many companies’ storage locations is often based on history rather than design. As well as optimising storage and transport costs, designing a finished goods network based on customer and factory locations opens up the opportunity for improved distribution service levels.
At The Supply Chain Design Company we have a track record of reviewing networks from 1st principles and balancing the results from this with practical and commercial considerations to produce a realistic migration strategy. Similarly, we work with clients to review their transport networks and have the experience and contacts to adapt these to improve both service and costs.
Link to Case Study 3 – Manufacturing Distribution Strategy
Link to Case Study 4 – Warehouse Optimisation
Link to Case Study 8 – Managing a major network transition
Link to Case Study 14 – Combining networks to provide a better and cheaper service.
Logistic Principles
Logisticians across the world do things differently from each other, but that does not mean that one is right and all the others are wrong.
The Supply Chain Design Company believes in following basic principles, which result in different solutions as a result of differences in markets, geography, cost structure and customer demands. Understanding and using these logistics principles generates the right answer, every time, anywhere. Contact us and we’ll tell you what they are!
Factory Gate Pricing
Factory gate collection has been promoted by the major retailers as a way of reducing transport costs. Whether or not that is true for an individual supplier will depend on that supplier’s size, delivery profile and existing supply chain efficiency.
We can help companies analyse the cost benefit of factory gate collection, either for the collection of finished goods by retailers or for their own suppliers delivering to their manufacturing sites.
Price Card Design
Customer ordering behaviour and delivery size are key to controlling distribution costs for any manufacturer. To optimise overall supply chain costs it is important that these parameters are reflected in price cards to a manufacturer’s customers.
Effective price card design is a blend of theory and practicality and within The Supply Chain Design Company we have significant experience of both elements and can guide manufacturers through the decision and selling processes they will need to undergo to implement effective price cards.
Link to case study 1 – Cost-to-Serve Trade off